Reunion
by ZAPBETH
Summary: When I close my eyes, I see him. When I dream, I dream of him. Karma. Oneshot.


When I close my eyes, I see him.

When I dream, I dream of him.

And now, as I breathe in those hasty breaths and as I feel my body start to relax into a sleep I will not wake from, I suddenly remember the image that I dreamed of once when I first arrived in New York, the image of him waving from a distant shore as if he is been waiting patiently for me to arrive. His smile had said everything when his lips were too far away to be heard from.

He is the sweet far thing I have been imagining about ever since.

And now, as I die in this mortal world where magic does not originate, I am envisioning that beautiful shore that is offering what I have waited for, that end I have been hoping for since I saw that dream of Kartik with his hand raised and his smile broad.

I breathe.

It is a countdown that I know I could stop in the middle if I had the willpower; it is the preparing for the future, these breaths. They are the only thing that are holding me back now; they are the only thing that refuses to bring me closer to him.

I stop. I let myself relax into what I know is coming; I let myself fall back into what has been inevitable from the moment he sacrificed himself for me. I allow myself to go back to the realms and to the warm embrace of Kartik.

I gave up my place in the greater glory that lay beyond with the simple swallowing of those purple berries for Miss Moore, and now as I recall my experiences there in that mist, I cannot find myself regretting the decision. The taste of that forgetfulness and rest the berries offered in my mouth, the knowing if I swallowed them, I would not feel again.

And so, as my soul enters the realms for the last time, as I will never leave them again, with the last bit of my magic, I wish for myself to become part of the magic. My eyes close with the effort, and then there is nothing to feel except light causing red on my eyelids.

I open them to see him before me like the star that has been the light in my life since the moment that he told me not to hold back the light, that he was here. His smile is bright, exactly what I have been in my dreams. He has lowered my hand from the perpetual wave it had seemingly been in. Kartik looked so careful like he had the first time he entered the realms and discovered the garden.

How could I not smile back at him? How could I not walk toward him with my arms wide, begging for his embrace?

As if by instinct, when I raised my arms, he walked toward me, his feet slipping into the sand with each step. His hands stroked my back when he enfolded me in his arms. It felt different than it had on Earth. It was so much like a dream, so much more like my imagination was playing tricks on me. He felt real; his skin was soft under my fingertips, but it had been so long. It had been years since I had gazed on his face, not just how it looked under my eyelids.

It felt like a miracle that I could feel the contact between our skins again. It felt like a miracle that he had been waiting for so long, and this moment was our reunion after so many years.

"Gemma, you're so beautiful," he whispers in my ear, his voice like a string that drew me back to all of my past with him, every kiss and every touch. "You look older, and your curls have calmed somewhat."

I reached my hand from where it was on his back to touch my hair that had been gray what had seemed a few moments ago. It felt like it had in my youth when I had struggled to do anything with it, the disordered mess that had seemed to be a curse, but it didn't feel like a curse anymore. It was like yet another link to when I was younger and he was present in my life. But we were beyond life and death now.

"You look exactly the same," I told Kartik, moving my fingers from my hair into his dark curls. "I didn't tell you half the things that I should have when we were alive."

"It doesn't matter," he said, his lips moving against my hair. "We have all of eternity to say whatever comes to mind."

And then he kissed me like I had been dreaming about. He kissed me with those warm lips that I had felt years before but had not yet forgotten despite the passage of time. I let myself sink into it, feeling every ounce of it that was available. It felt like the kiss never had to end, and I realized that it ever did.

**A/N:** This is my first adventure into AGATB fanfiction, and I had to write another ending for the series. I took a couple lines from the last chapter of TSFT. Feel free to reload any criticism that you might have or anything you might say.


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